How SkyGuard Unified Life and Aviation Insurance with Openkoda

When an insurer sets out to combine life insurance with one of the world's most specialised property and casualty lines, aviation, the technology problem goes well beyond policy administration. Aviation insurance needs sophisticated underwriting, real-time operational data, dynamic pricing and workflows that look nothing like a traditional life product.

Most platforms force a compromise at that point: bend the business to fit the software, or commit to a multi-year custom build. SkyGuard took a third path.

In roughly three months, SkyGuard and Openkoda delivered a production-ready, fully configurable platform covering both life insurance and aviation P&C, integrated with the company's own AI and machine-learning risk engine. Brokers, underwriters, claims teams and administrators now run multiple product lines from a single configurable system.

Insurance priced by how the aircraft actually flies

SkyGuard is building a new generation of aviation insurance. Instead of relying on a static annual risk assessment, it combines Flight Data Monitoring (FDM), AI-driven analytics and proprietary underwriting models to evaluate operational risk continuously.

The ambition is to move aviation insurance from reactive claims handling to proactive risk management, where pricing reflects how aircraft are actually flown rather than historical assumptions alone.

Its portfolio spans long-term life products for aviation professionals and specialty aviation P&C, including aircraft hull and liability cover. The platform serves pilots, commercial operators, private jet owners, cargo fleets, rotorcraft operators, brokers and reinsurers, around dynamic "Pay As You Fly" and "Pay How You Fly" models.

Building that business needed software as sophisticated as the products themselves.

Two insurance businesses, one platform

On one side sat life insurance, including aviation-specific benefits such as Life Cover and Loss of Licence protection.

On the other sat specialty aviation P&C, where underwriting turns on aircraft characteristics, pilot profiles, mission types, geography and real-time flight behaviour. SkyGuard's underwriting philosophy runs on a proprietary Four Factor model that continuously evaluates Pilot, Aircraft, Operation Type and Environment using live telemetry and AI analytics.

At the centre of it all was SkyGuard's own AI and machine-learning rating engine. Any new platform had to integrate with it through APIs without replacing or constraining what it could do.

The platform also had to support:

• configurable end-to-end quote-to-bind workflows
• manual and automated underwriting
• dynamic premium adjustments driven by metadata and external risk calculations
• broker self-service
• claims and endorsements
• reinsurance administration
• configurable document generation
• regulatory-grade security with role-based access control
• room to evolve quickly as new products are introduced

Generic insurance systems usually do one product line well. Very few accommodate both life and highly specialised aviation cover inside the same configurable architecture.

One configurable core, two very different product lines

Openkoda's architecture let SkyGuard build a single configurable platform instead of maintaining several disconnected systems.

A flexible, metadata-driven data model allowed life and aviation products to coexist without forcing either into an artificial structure. Each line kept its own workflows, underwriting logic and data requirements while sharing a common operational foundation.

The API-first architecture made SkyGuard's rating engine a natural extension of the quoting process. Rather than burying pricing logic inside the policy system, Openkoda orchestrates the underwriting workflow while external AI services calculate risk, pricing and premium adjustments in real time.

Role-based portals were configured for underwriters, brokers, claims specialists and administrators, each with access scoped to their part of the lifecycle. The platform also covers First Notice of Loss, claims registration and tracking, policy endorsements, reinsurance workflows, configurable document generation and automated communications through policy servicing.

Because Openkoda is built on an open, standard technology stack, SkyGuard retains full ownership of the platform and can keep extending products, workflows and integrations without waiting on a vendor roadmap.

Three phases, three months

Delivery ran in three focused phases.

Phase 1: core insurance operations. We designed a data model capable of carrying both life and aviation insurance, then configured the full policy lifecycle: quoting, underwriting, endorsements, renewals, automated notifications and servicing. That produced dedicated modules for:

• life insurance quoting
• aviation P&C quoting
• underwriter dashboards
• First Notice of Loss (FNOL)
• claims registration and tracking
• policy endorsements
• customer, broker, beneficiary, payment and policy administration

Claims are handled across the lifecycle in the platform, with integration available to external claims systems where a programme requires it. Together these capabilities give both product lines one operational workspace while preserving the specialised underwriting each needs.

Phase 2: reinsurance and premium management. The second phase added reinsurance support across multiple treaty structures, along with metadata-driven premium adjustments, dynamic invoicing and configurable pricing workflows aligned to SkyGuard's risk engine.

Phase 3: broker portal. Finally we delivered a dedicated broker portal, so external distribution partners can generate quotes, submit business, track policies and work with underwriters through digital workflows.

What SkyGuard runs today

In about three months, SkyGuard deployed a production-ready platform supporting both life insurance and one of the industry's most specialised commercial lines from a single configurable core.

The platform now enables:

• unified administration of life and aviation insurance products
• seamless integration with SkyGuard's AI and flight-data rating engine
• configurable underwriting workflows for automated and manual decisions
• broker self-service through secure portals
• integrated FNOL, claims registration and tracking, endorsements, reinsurance and document management
• rapid product evolution without platform redevelopment

Most importantly, SkyGuard owns a platform that evolves with the business. As new aviation products, underwriting models, AI capabilities and distribution channels arrive, they are configured in Openkoda rather than triggering another major implementation project.

That flexibility is the technical foundation for SkyGuard's wider ambition: turning aviation insurance into a continuously monitored, data-driven service where underwriting, pricing and risk management move with every flight.